Susan Starr and Ringo the rescue dog share a high five after a successful tracking. Ringo, who came from our own Humane Society of Central Arizona, is showing great promise, and his human equivalents at Tonto Rim Search and Rescue can't wait to put him to work.
By Mitzi Brabb
Gazette/Connection Correspondent
The Tonto Rim Search and Rescue (TRSAR) organization has been dedicated to saving lives and restoring health to victims in the Rim Country wilderness since 1964. While they are considered one of the best Search and Rescue (SAR) groups in the state, the one thing their fine team of volunteers has lacked was a tracking dog. That is, until now.
When Mesa del Caballo resident Susan Starr attended the SAR Academy in April, she learned that the most effective way to track lost or missing people is with a trained tracking dog. With canine help at the top of the list, next were searchers on foot, horseback, ATVs, and lastly, helicopters.
Starr asked her SAR Commander, Bill Pitterle, why the team didn’t have a dog.
His answer was that no one had seemed to take an interest in owning an SAR dog. So Starr, who is a Certified Veterinary Technician working at a local veterinary practice, gave it serious thought. She pitched the idea to the TRSAR board that she would own the SAR dog and do the research. The board readily agreed.
Starr’s first step was to seek out a trainable canine, and she was adamant that it should come from the local animal shelter. She got Payson dog trainer Lauren Paterson to join her ‘pet project’ and help her to choose the proper dog at the Humane Society of Central Arizona.
They looked at a couple of older dogs, but one lacked determination and the other was better suited for police work like drug or bomb sniffing. Finally, they came upon a litter of pups that appeared to be an Aussie and Labrador mix.
Paterson, who is the owner of Wolf Pack Dog Training and Pet Sitting Service, has trained Police canines for tracking work and understands the natural behavior of dogs.
She put these pound puppies, just shy of eight weeks old, to a test to see how determined and how quickly they could find food. Two of the Aussie colored males showed real promise and quickly sniffed out the food, but one of them was already spoken for.
Aside from needing a good sniffer, it takes the right temperament and social skills to be an effective SAR dog. Paterson said that training usually begins at 12-15 months, but she prefers starting earlier so that she can easily imprint the puppies.
“They are like little sponges, and they are more sure of themselves when they come of age to be a SAR dog,” said Paterson.
So Starr adopted the other male pup that had shown real promise and named him Ringo. Since bringing him home in June, she has been steadily working with Ringo, including a group training session twice a week. If his progress continues at this rate, he will be ready to start officially tracking on SAR missions in approximately five months.
“He's a sweet natured dog, very smart and motivated,” said Starr. “He's already up to starting with an item of clothing, and ending with finding a real person. Everyone is very pleased with his progress.”
Paterson agrees that he is an intelligent dog with a sweet personality. Though many assume that hounds and shepherds are best suited for tracking, Paterson explained that it is much less frightening and intimidating for a lost person to be found by a good-natured dog like Ringo.
“He loves to find people and wants to please,” Paterson said. “He’s like an impatient little kid. He knows when he has a mission and he just wants to go.”
In the training process for SAR, it is important not only to work with the dog, but with the dog-handler as well. The handler needs to know how to continually work with the animal, and to ensure that it receives proper ongoing training.
Paterson begins with the dog and its owner on tracking food, and detecting obstacles. An article with a person’s scent on it can be left on a trail. There are several tests involved in the training process.
“People have to learn to trust the dog to do its job, because a (SAR) person will lose the visual when they lose a footprint, but a dog will keep on the scent.”
At seven months of age, Ringo is making great progress. Paterson said she has never seen a dog track as precisely as Ringo. She hopes to get her business set up to do more training for SAR, as well as police dog training. She noted that Ringo has been a fine example of what she plans to carry out in the future. Her work with Ringo is reported on the TRSAR website.
“The way Ringo is tracking, I don't think he would miss anything. If he keeps on tracking like this he will be finding lost people in no time! Some dogs at this age get distracted or bored; not Ringo, he loves the work,” she wrote.
“With consistent training and proper handling Ringo has great potential to successfully assist on SAR missions once he is old enough.”
While Starr said that her "star dog" still has the challenge of snow training ahead, Ringo has successfully tracked to a range of 300-400 yards, even when the site has been cold for a while.
“We did five searches this morning and he found all five of us within five to seven minutes. Humans may have taken up to a full day to accomplish what he did in five minutes,” said Starr.
Starr explained that in search and rescue, there will always be different scenarios, and that the TRSAR is bound to run into a wide variety of them. Having a SAR canine teammate should help cut down on rescue times and elevate success rates.
She looks forward to the day that Ringo saves a life. As a volunteer, she encourages people to contact the TRSAR as soon as they suspect someone has gone missing.
“The success rate for finding someone is much stronger before the track sits too long.”
Both the TRSAR and the Humane Society of Central Arizona are non-profit organizations pivotal in making the canine program work. They are thankful for the contributions that have been made not only to save the lives of the animals at the shelter, but ultimately, through this program, for saving human lives as well. The TRSAR can be reached at (928) 468-8685, or online at www.trsar.org. The Humane Society of Central Arizona can be contacted by calling (928) 474-5590, or at www.humanesocietycentralaz.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment